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Discussion in 'Fan Art' started by REL, Apr 7, 2011.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the feedback.
Here's the part that will go on the belly.
Absolutely beautiful work. This is going to be one hell of a ship.
Not necessarily. Consider this:
Apply a set total of armour across a large two-sided surface. Per square inch you'll have to have some pretty thin armour.
Now take the exact same amount of armour and spread it on a thin tube. Per square inch you'll have alot more armour. Not only that but the tube is one of the most rigid structures.
what is this 'armour' of which you speak? star trek ships have shields.
I think he means the greebled hull panels which adorn Klingon ships.
That attention to detail on the underbelly piece is awesome. It, and the D-5 from ENTERPRISE look like nice post-K't'inga designs.
I hope you go for your own nacelle designs too, unless you incline stock ones very heavily inward on the bottom so as to have the side view remain sleek.
Movie Quality!
Yeah, orthos would be very useful.
In the future something that you may want to use. The clippers used for buzz cuts often have finned attachments that might be a good front end for impulse blocks. Also, for smaller craft, a thing called a sewing foot might make good landing skids.
Thanks everyone.
I'm working out the shape for the bottom. The connection between the rear of the ball, and the lower body is something I'm still messing with so it'll probably change.
The more you progress, the more I like it. And I loved it when you were just starting. A very cool design. And, yeah, as of right now it almost looks like the "head" is hinged to look down. Maybe to scowl at it's enemies before it fires. LOL Seriously, it is looking awesome!
Wow, you're really doing a great job on this... it's fixing everything the Vorcha from TNG got wrong.
I can't wait to build it.
Absolutely great work. This is my favorite Klingon ship design so far. Can't wait to see the finished product!
Awesome sculpt-build, politely curious if any line drawings or schematics are forthcoming ?
Looks great!
Just my initial idea sketch, which I scanned and made blueprints from. After it's all finished I'll make those available for anyone that wants to make a CG version of it.
Very nice progress!
The K'tinga is one of my favorite Trek ships. Such an original design. Thank god for Matt Jefferies. At first, I was skeptical, but now that I see all the hull etching and other details I'm liking this project a lot. Keep it up!
Thanks again for the comments.
More on the bottom.
This ship is making me K'tingly in all of my K'naughty places.
Separate names with a comma.


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Album review: Purity Ring's Shrines
James plays on her small-sounding voice a lot, which I found increasingly grating the more I listened to the album. It's partly a personal intolerance for grown women playing twee but also there's something frustrating about ambitious, wide instrumentals, whose breathy intimacy didn't need any greater emphasis, being somewhat reduced by a vocal not always interesting enough to accompany them.
Artist: Purity Ring
Album: Shrines
Format: Physical and download
Label: 4AD
Purity Ring make really, really nice sounds. They're a Montreal-based duo, consisting of multi-instrumentalist Corin Roddick and vocalist Megan James, who formed semi-accidentally while both part of Gobble Gobble (then Born Gold) after Roddick started messing around with beats. They released their first track, 'Ungirthed,' online in 2011 and have been slowly leaking songs ever since.
The project was born when Roddick decided to experiement with hip hop beats, which is a fact that genuinely surprised me. Perhaps because I listen to hip hop as a matter of course, it never occurred to me that what I was hearing was more inspired by that than by electronica in general. But finding it out made me overcome all grumpy and mutter feelings about Girl Talk bringing smug hipster pseudo-ironic vegan crunk nights to life. There's been far too much back-patting over indie musicians listening to a bit of UGK or whatever over the last five years; ever since Simon Reynolds' outright bonkers declaration that Vampire Weekend had the most innovative beats of 2009 I've been twitchily cynical about this sort of fusion cookery.
The good news is: like the xx, Purity Ring pull it off.
The bad news is: unlike the xx, this isn't a groundbreaker. Where their eponymous 2009 album was a witchy, clattering breakthrough full of tension and minimalism, Purity Ring are working with a different, far more familiar palette. The beats I hadn't quite recognised as hip hop that Roddick and James have been influenced by are (at a guess) the latter-day Guetta-style productions, which to my European ears sounded like dance. It's interesting if electronica is coming back to sample hip hop's use of electronic noise (there are some tracks that definitely veer more in a crunk-ish direction) in the type of endless sample loop both genres are known for. The result is a very appealling-sounding echo chamber — essentially genre navel-gazing.
Which is fine, seeing as that's essentially the entire purpose of bedroom-soft indie electronica and not necessarily a bad one at all- this is a very beautiful, lush LP. Loops and stutters suit shoegaze perfectly, wrapping it in the patterns of thoughts and daydreams that its born out of, as murky and dense as the synth layers here; Purity Ring's music is very much about sensation and full effect, from the instrument that Roddick created to play live, covered in light bulbs to glow synaesthetically to the mashed words that make their song titles.
The first track on the album, 'Crawlersout', starts with clear, shining waves of synth and James' high, almost childlike vocals, floating on the ripples. Distortion and noise only occasionally interject, a roar of restrained bass in the chorus the only sign of the build that will occur later in the album. It's very pretty and almost a mislead, as for all the layers and aesthetic rule here, this isn't a cute album at all.
Third track on the LP and chronologically their first, 'Ungirthed' shows more of the syncopated toughness that Shrines is made of –
Maybe because it's their first track, James still sounds very nervous, not in the tremulous way that she does deliberately on later things but in the sense that they don't seem to quite have control of their sound.
There's a motif of 'littleness' around the album- I realise that's not a word, however it's definitely what's going on here; on 'Fineshrine' Megan sings the unearthly chat up line "get a little closer/let it fold/cut open my sternum and pull/my little ribs around you" and on 'Belispeak' first Straighten out the pots and set them close outside for when my belly, for when my little belly speaks then again Grandma, my hands have wondered and my legs/my little legs are getting weak.
James plays on her small-sounding voice a lot, which I found increasingly grating the more I listened to the album. It's partly a personal intolerance for grown women playing twee but also there's something frustrating about ambitious, wide instrumentals, whose breathy intimacy didn't need any greater emphasis, being somewhat reduced by a vocal not always interesting enough to accompany them.
The song where it does work the best is 'Grandloves', featuring Young Magic- it uses the hip hop element to its fullest and the presence of other vocals elevates the song to another level:
It's one of the songs where the arrangements are given the most space, the vocals sparse and mixed into the waves of the accompaniment. For such a breathy album, the music isn't always given enough air and the sense of depth without everything and the kitchen sink being thrown at it here is gorgeous.
'Lofticries', the penultimate track, does a similar thing in terms of marrying the synth rhythms and those of James' vocals, a factor that's missing from much of the album and one of the things that's most grating. The gyratory chopping of the arrangement rarely hides the fact she tends to be singing the same tune across quite a few of the songs but 'Lofticries' sees her challenged by rhythmic requirements that create a far more complex, deeper sound. The interspersed distorted speech and retro strobe-synth adding to a glittery ball of something pulsing and urgent. The "use your oily fingers, make a paste, let it form" feels alchemical, creative in a witchy way that the album often strives for but only rarely achieves…
Shrines is an extremely pleasant listen- it has a dreamlike, hymnal atmosphere that's incredibly appealing, woozy and hypnotic like a deep, drugged sleep and roughly as sinister, for all the sweetness. The band isn't breaking any boundaries; Shrines sounds an awful lot like DNTEL's over-ten-years-old Life Is Full Of Possiblities, but not being cutting-edge doesn't mean that they're bad.
Hazel left school on her 15th birthday and she's been writing about music ever since. She particularly likes awful noises, confessionally uncomfortable pop and clubs that can't handle her right now. She has written for "Stylus" (RIP), the BBC, "Popjustice," "The Singles Jukebox," "Thrash Hits" and many others. She is 25 and lives in an unfashionable area of London.

subset: commoncrawl


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DETROIT (AP) — It wasn't easy making Detroit the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection, but it was the right decision, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Sunday as he, the city's mayor and its emergency manager made the television talk show rounds.
Snyder, a Republican, gave his blessing to emergency manager Kevyn Orr's decision to file for bankruptcy for Detroit on Thursday.
"We looked through every other viable option," Snyder said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"The debt question needs to be addressed. But even more important is the accountability to the citizens of Detroit," said Snyder. "They are not getting the services they deserve and they haven't for a very long time. So this can has been getting kicked down the road for decades. Enough is enough and now's the time to turn it around."
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Snyder said if Detroit's restructuring proves successful, the city could roar back stronger than before.
"We're moving now on improving Detroit," he added.
The state hired Orr in March to fix Detroit's ballooning debt and more than $300 million budget deficit
. He is a turnaround specialist and represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring.
Orr laid out his plans in a June meeting with debt holders, in which his team warned there was a 50-50 chance of a bankruptcy filing. The city then stopped paying $2.5 billion in unsecured debt to "conserve cash" for police, fire and other services.
Orr has said Detroit's long-term debt burden could be as much as $20 billion.
Over the past six decades, Detroit's population has shrunk from 1.8 million to about 700,000. The city has about 10,000 active public workers and 18,000 retired ones who are still owed pension and health benefits.
The costs of health care and pension contributions over the years have outpaced the revenue Detroit was bringing in from property and business taxes and other sources. The city has been unable to make those contributions and pay current payroll and other bills.
Funds that cover retiree health coverage are underfunded by about $5.7 billion. Ones that cover pension obligations are underfunded by about $3.5 billion.
"We're going to have a dialogue with the pension funds about what we can do," Orr told "Fox News Sunday."
"And all we're talking about in this restructuring is the unfunded component of those pension funds," he said. "There have to be concessions."
Bing, a first-term mayor who announced earlier this year he would not seek re-election in the fall, has been opposed to state oversight and bankruptcy. On Sunday, he told ABC's "This Week" that he hopes the filing can be a new start for the city.
"Detroiters are very, very resilient people," said Bing, a professional basketball Hall-of-Famer who spent most of his career with the NBA's Detroit Pistons. "Detroit is a very iconic city, worldwide. Its people will fight for this and we will come back."
But he doesn't expect much, if any, help in the way of bailout money from the federal government.
"Now that the (bankruptcy) filing is done, we need to step back and see what's next," Bing said. "The president has a lot on his plate. More than 100 major urban cities are struggling and going through this. We may be the first and one of largest, but we won't be the last."
See also:


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ARTS organisations are celebrating after being given an £8.7million funding boost.
The Focal Point Gallery and arts group Metal, both in Southend, are among those picking up money, which will keep them going for the next three years.
Kinetika Art Links International and the National Skills Academy, both in Thurrock, also received money as Arts Council England announced funding for 670 arts organisations and 21 museums across the country.
Joe Hill, newly-appointed director of the Focal Point Gallery, which is based in the Forum library, said the money was important to the thriving local arts team. Mr Hill said: "This funding comes at a crucial time for Southend's cultural landscape and is recognition of all that has been achieved by the team at the gallery.
"With the opening of our new space last September, the number of highprofile artists with international reputations coming to work in the town is growing.
"Visitor numbers to our exhibitions have more than doubled and we're developing closer relationships with other cultural organisations in the region.
"This funding ensures we can sustain and develop a crucial space for contemporary art in south Essex."
Since opening, the gallery, which will receive £550,000, has staged solo exhibitions by 2012 Turner-Prize winner Elizabeth Price, Jemima Stehli and David Mabb.
Permanent artworks were also created for the space, including an installation by Mike Nelson, commissioned furniture by Marc Camille Chaimowicz, a public artwork by American artist Allen Ruppersberg and a bespoke reception desk designed by Southend-born Tris Vonna-Michell, who is nominated for this year's Turner Prize.
Metal, which organises the Village Green Festival, in Chalkwell Park, received £1.6million for projects in Southend, Liverpool and Peterborough.
The organisation will recieve approximately £188,500 towards arts activities and programme for Metal Southend each year.
Metal's artistic director, Colette Bailey said: "It's a great starting point for another three years of creating great art projects for all kinds of people from all walks of life."
ARTS groups in Essex will receive a total of £8,709,622. Here's how it breaks down in the south of the county.
! The Focal Point Gallery, in the Forum library, Southend: £550,000 ! Metal Culture: £1,696,134 ! Kinetika Art Links International, Thurrock: £296,535 ! The National Skills Academy, Thurrock: £810,000


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|That's all folks: digging's done for this year.
For the past week and a half, the HMNS paleontology team – led by Dr. Robert Bakker – has been back in Seymour, TX, digging for Dimetrodon at a site they've now been working for several years. (You can read more of what's been found already in our daily blog from the field in 2007). Today, they said goodbye to the site for several months, after leaving it covered and safe for the coming winter weather, and pulling out a ton (possibly literally) of new material to study and prepare until then.
David Temple – our associate curator of paleontology and a one of our BEYONDbones bloggers– provides this series' farewell podcast with a wrapup of their discoveries – and a review of the local cuisine.
Never fear! If you miss the daily update, stop by the museum – members of the team and Museum volunteers often work to preserve these fossils in public areas, like the Paleontology Hall or the Dinosaur Mummy CSI exhibition. You can also check out earlier updates from this dig trip:
Day One: Live from the Fossil Field
Day Two: The Smoking Gun
Day Three: New Discoveries
Day Four: Secondontosaurus Found?
Day Five: Mad Max
Day Six: Fossil Prep
Day Seven: Trench Warfare
Day Eight and Nine: Two for One!


text: Fillies' Stakes Path Continues at Turfway in Cincinnati Trophy Friday, January 20, 2012 12:00 AM General Spiral Stakes FLORENCE, Ky., Jan. 20, 2012 – Turfway Park's series of stakes for young fillies continues Saturday with the 30th running of the $50,000 Cincinnati Trophy Stakes. A field of 10 3-year-olds is entered for the 6 1/2-furlong race, a local prep for the Bourbonette Oaks (G3) on the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes undercard.Sweetnessngoodness improved mightily from her first start to her second and is two-for-two at Turfway. She was so badly outrun in her debut at Churchill Downs in November that her jockey eased her home, but the light went on at Turfway a month later and she drew off decisively to win a maiden special by nearly six lengths. She put the debut questions firmly to rest in her third start, an optional allowance also at Turfway, winning by 1 1/4 lengths after pressing the early pace. Rodney Prescott was aboard for both wins but takes off to ride A. P. Diva, leaving Sweenessngoodness in the hands of seven-pound apprentice Alejandro Contreras. Mike Lauer trains.A. P. Diva set all the pace to break her maiden at Turfway in her third start, a maiden special sprint, and comes in to the Cincinnati Trophy after finishing third, beaten just more than a length, in the Gowell. Trained by Wayne Mogge, A. P. Diva is based at Turfway. Prescott has been aboard for three of her four starts and has the mount again.Lotta Lovin won the first of the filly series, the Gowell Stakes for 2-year-olds in late December, despite using some of her energy to break through the gate before the start. She is two-for-four on all-weather surfaces and just fired a bullet five-furlong work at Turfway last Saturday. The meet's hot trainer-jockey team, Mike Maker and Victor Lebron, join forces again in seeking a second stakes trophy for Lotta Lovin's mantel.A. P. Diva and Sweetnessngoodness are likely to be out first, and Lotta Lovin has shown early speed in the past, so the door may be open for one of several closers in the field, including last-out winner Make a Toast, debut winner Poor Boy's Passion, and Southern Bling.The field for the Cincinnati Trophy from the rail out: A. P. Diva; Poor Boy's Passion (jockey Sal Gonzalez Jr.); Make a Toast (Amanda Tamburello); Cozze Up Lady (Anthony Stephen); Sweetnessngoodness; Lotta Lovin; Nava (Constantino Roman); Flashy Lassie, a Grade 3 winner at two who's looking to regain that promise (Orlando Mojica); Southern Bling (John McKee); and Piskacha (Juan Enriquez).The Cincinnati Trophy is the ninth of 10 races on Saturday's card. First post is 1:10 p.m.The third race in the filly series is the one-mile Valdale Stakes, set for Feb. 25.###


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When forward Brian Ching went down on Thursday night against Real Salt Lake holding his leg, all of Robertson Stadium held its collective breath. When the forward immediately indicated to the bench that the injury was serious, the forward's season and his World Cup chances seemed doubtful at best.
However, Monday morning at practice Ching was jogging at times and seemed to be optimistic about his return to the Dynamo and making that return in time to give himself a shot at the U.S. national team's World Cup squad.
"I feel pretty good, considering how I felt the day after the game," Ching told MLSsoccer.com. "I did a lot more today than I thought I was going to do. Hopefully that's a good sign that I'm healing quicker than normal."
On Tuesday, the Dynamo forward had an MRI on his hamstring and the results were expected, but slightly worse than Ching had hoped.
"The MRI revealed a little bit more than a mild tear," said the forward. "They said the tear was on the surface of the muscle, but it was a long tear. I'm thinking three to four weeks, but it may be longer."
The Hawaiian though is hopeful based on his previous experience with hamstring injuries to be back sooner rather than later.
"Last year I pulled my hamstring at the wrong time," Ching noted. "I came back and had no issues after the initial pull. I am definitely going to be careful. I'm not going to rush it back and injure myself even longer. I definitely want to push it, but not too hard so I set myself back."
That said, Ching will have a hard time not being tempted to push it. In 2006, the Dynamo forward was part of the U.S. team that traveled to Germany for the World Cup. However, then coach Bruce Arena opted to play other players as the U.S. was dumped out of the World Cup.
"The hamstring injury has set me back and has hurt my chances a little bit for the World Cup, which is frustrating," said Ching. "I spoke with one of the assistant coaches [of the U.S. team] who inquired about how bad it was ... but if today was any indication of me coming back, I think being back at the end of April [or the] beginning of May is pretty realistic."
If Ching can make it back by that soon, he's hopeful that his return to the Dynamo will keep him in contention for the World Cup squad. The U.S. has friendlies scheduled for May 25 against the Czech Republic and May 29 against Turkey. The more important date for Ching will likely be the preliminary roster deadline of 30 names to be submitted by May 11.
"Hopefully I can get back on the field as quick as I can and get back up to fitness and that's all I can do at this point," said Ching. "My goal is to get back by the end of April, early May, because I feel that would give me the best chance to get back on the World Cup team and, of course, help the Dynamo."


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Good morning/afternoon/evening (depending on your time of day):
Yesterday I began to notice in my Google Chrome browser a certain slowing down of the mouse when opening new pages; you know, that feeling that the mouse is dragging. Furthermore, I also notice certain web pages opening when I clicked on links or even accidentally just clicking on random points of the page.
The pages that opened were all related to this one site, EDIT which, despite the URL, is actually operated from an ISP in Phoenix, Arizona. He or she has 128 different domains registered, and I blocked them all in Google Chrome, but it was no good. Sometimes the tab opens so quickly and closes again that I have no chance of identifying the URL. It's definitely adware because later on I was treated to some advertising I had no interest in or came from a click on a link in YouTube, for example.
I have used Spybot, Malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials and ZoneAlarm and none of them have picked up any underlying or potential threat. Google produces 20 hits, all related to domain name registry pages - in other words, there is no mention of this or similar URLs in any forum, or blog, or any other site that I know of and I thought, typical, the problem I have is completely unique and I am not able to find any help for it.
I just wonder if anyone here has heard of it, or similar, and have any suggestions for solutions to this problem?
I will be most grateful for any assistance that could be provided. I will do anything I can to help someone in return.
Stephen Butler (UK)


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By Tony Kontzer
May 2011
Famed microbiologist Louis Pasteur once said that "chance favors only the prepared mind." And while the management of Irish energy provider Bord Gáis may not have been thinking of the French scientist's formula for luck when energy deregulation came to Ireland, it certainly was ready to match market opportunity with IT preparation.
Ireland's electricity market opened to broad competition in 2005 after years of government control, allowing customers to change energy providers on demand. This introduced competitive pressure and created a whole new market. Bord Gáis was a major single-fuel gas player in this market, and as deregulation unfolded, the management of Bord Gáis initiated a complete IT overhaul to deliver better integration of customer service and billing for the company's 650,000 gas customers and to equip the company to also supply electricity, offering a complete suite of energy services to Ireland's 4.5 million residents and numerous industries.
Today, due to a cocktail of planning and opportunity that would make Pasteur proud, Bord Gáis serves more than 1 million gas and electricity customers. "We needed a new platform to allow us to launch into that market," says Bord Gáis CIO Ashling Cunningham. "We launched a massive marketing campaign, leveraging social as well as traditional media," explains Cunningham. "We called it 'The Big Switch,' and we embraced that kind of reinvention message within our technology organization. Today you wouldn't recognize our core energy systems compared to what we were using a few years ago."
|Bord Gáis
Cork City, Ireland
Year founded:
Approximately 1.1 million (650,000 gas and 425,000 electricity)
€1.3 billion in 2009
Oracle products:
Oracle Utilities customer care and billing solution; Oracle E-Business Suite, including Oracle iProcurement and Oracle Time and Labor; Oracle Hyperion Financial Management; Oracle User Productivity Kit; Oracle WebLogic Suite; Oracle SOA Suite for Oracle Middleware for Oracle Applications; Oracle Discoverer 11g; Oracle Database 10g
Indeed, Bord Gáis' multiyear IT transformation, based on Oracle technology, allowed the power supplier's business leaders to improve operational efficiencies for the existing gas business, comply with new regulatory mandates, and provide excellent customer service for 425,000 new residential electricity customers—even as the energy market made its dramatic shifts from public to private ownership. These were all major developments that Bord Gáis' legacy systems could not have sustained.
"It was high-wire stuff," says David Bunworth, who as managing director of Bord Gáis' energy business oversaw the business side of the billing systems transformation project before retiring last December. "If we had switched without going on the Oracle system," Bunworth adds, "I think the old system would've blown up."
Deregulation Breeds Complexity
The path to opening up Ireland's energy market can be traced to a directive from the European Union in the 1990s that Ireland end the monopoly of the state-run electricity supplier. In 1999, Ireland formed the Commission for Energy Regulation to oversee this process, and six years later the residential electricity market opened to competition, with new competitors free to set their own prices while the incumbent supplier's prices would be set by the commission. That advantage ceased in April 2011 when the commission released the price controls and allowed all market players to start setting their own electricity pricing, introducing new competitors to the market.
In other words, management at Bord Gáis, which embarked on its IT transformation path in large part to take advantage of the opening up of the electricity market, must now fend off the formerly state-run Electricity Supply Board (ESB) from whom Bord Gáis has been working so hard to lure customers. "There was no doubt this would be a challenge," says Cunningham. "So within IT, one of our goals was to create systems that would really allow us to engage with our customers very differently. We know that someday very soon we are going to have to compete—not just on price but with our ability to deliver excellent, friendly, and pervasive services internally and externally to our customers."
Additionally, Bord Gáis must comply with an EU directive to separate its networks business (which develops, operates, and maintains gas transmission and distribution networks) from the energy supply business to ensure fair competition. It has also had to meet a deregulation requirement to send and receive XML messages that alert networks and suppliers to actions such as meter readings and customers switching suppliers. Meanwhile, Bord Gáis, which also performs home service calls, must preserve its hold on gas customers in an increasingly competitive market.
Given all of this, it's mission critical that the Bord Gáis executives be able to count on a modernized IT environment to meet new business requirements. Just a few years ago, Bord Gáis still relied on its "integrated utility system," a legacy billing platform that was rife with limitations. The initial wave of deregulation allowed Bord Gáis to provide electricity for the first time, but only to a small number of large commercial customers, the scale of which didn't necessitate a systems overhaul.
But that overhaul would become very necessary a few years later, as the company prepared to take advantage of the opening up of Ireland's residential electricity market to competition—an opportunity too big to let pass. The green-screen legacy system was unable to handle billing of residential customers for both gas and electricity. Call center staff providing customer service via phone had to navigate multiple screens to complete the most-basic transactions—transactions that could take at least three minutes each to process. The complexity made training of new employees a drawn-out eight-week ordeal that often ended with trainees leaving before the process was complete, requiring the company to start the eight-week cycle again.
If Bord Gáis was going to effectively move into the consumer electricity market before it was crowded with other new players, management determined it had until 2008 to prepare a new IT system. In the fall of 2005, IT staff and the business started evaluating new options, selecting a utilities billing platform from SPL WorldGroup (acquired later that year by Oracle) to replace the legacy IT environment.
It was work that was long overdue.
"The old technology was an extremely slow and cumbersome system with a lot of patchwork quilt around it," says Bunworth. "It had been going for 25 years, with fixes every three or four months to modify it. It served its purpose well, but really had gone well past its sell-by date."
The Deployment Path
By the fall of 2006, Bord Gáis started the implementation. The Oracle Utilities customer care and billing solution was being installed, database schemes were being built to match Bord Gáis' billing processes to the technology, and Bord Gáis' development team was feverishly building customizations. The initial plan was to have the new Oracle system up and running by November 2007.
But by November 2007, it was becoming clear that the project was off to a false start. According to Bunworth, the company's customer billing database simply wasn't clean enough to ensure a good installation, and there were quality issues with the software.
Bord Gáis management made the difficult decision to halt the project completely and begin again with a rebuilt database. It would delay the project several months, yet it turned out to be exactly the right move (see " When to Restart an IT Project").
In February 2008, Bord Gáis executives signed off on a clean, stable billing system that was ready to be built upon. Over the following nine months, the project team focused its efforts on another 20 to 30 customizations that were needed—some still in design, others in development, and a handful in testing. Most of the development was completed by August 2008, with the remaining months devoted to acceptance processes.
The deployment of the Oracle Utilities customer care and billing solution went live in November 2008 with Bord Gáis' residential gas customers, who were moved into the new system in batches until all 650,000 customers had been migrated.
Electric IT
Over the ensuing three months, the project team worked feverishly again to ensure that the system's electricity billing functionality was ready to take on new customers. In February 2009, Bord Gáis entered the deregulated residential electricity market, marking the beginning of what the company states has been the most successful utility switching campaign in history.
It started small, as the company tested the system by establishing its 1,100 employees as the first electricity customers. With that success, Bord Gáis started marketing to existing gas customers, promoting a process that would allow them to switch from their existing electricity provider in a few clicks online.
The program was then extended to new customers. Cunningham says management expected to add 80,000 electricity customers in the first year but reached that number in less than six weeks. "From an IT perspective, we weren't anticipating these numbers," says Cunningham. "We had to ramp up really quickly, both in IT and in the business, to deal with the volumes of customers that we were taking on."
All told, Bord Gáis has now accumulated some 425,000 residential electricity customers to date, more than adequately delivering the core capability on which all the hard work had been focused. "We exceeded our forecasts by a significant multiple and in doing so developed a system in which we have exceptional confidence," says Cunningham. "Our system delivers business value right from the executive level to the individual call center team member."
The final piece of the billing system migration came in September 2009, when Bord Gáis added its "complex" gas customers. These mostly commercial customers are large-scale users who are billed in 15-minute intervals, and as such the billing requirements related to their accounts are much more data intensive. The company has since started offering complex electricity service as well.
But it's not just the ability to support dual utility billing that the Oracle system has brought to Bord Gáis. The company has realized a wide range of capabilities and benefits that wouldn't have been possible no matter how much updating it might have done to its old legacy system.
One of the most critical of these capabilities has enabled Bord Gáis to comply with a regulatory requirement that utilities providers separate their energy supply businesses from the networks they use to transmit critical customer data such as new service orders, switches in providers, and meter readings. The idea is to prevent the competitive imbalance of having a provider that's in control of the network competing against one that's not. The information is now sent as XML messages, per regulations, and Bord Gáis is sending and receiving 50,000 such messages a day via the new billing system.
The company was also able to build in real-time messaging with the suppliers who manage home service visits. Those messages are delivered directly to mobile devices carried by the engineers who conduct the visits, which can be for such things as energy usage consultations and boiler servicing. Engineers then update the system after finishing a visit, and if the customer follows up via phone to provide feedback, the customer service rep has all the information on the service call.
"There is no way we would have been able to build that off the legacy system," says Alexandra Gillies, who was the lead architect on the project for Oracle, and who later joined Bord Gáis as energy systems IT manager. "It was great to have a foundation in place that we could leverage."
Charged Up
In terms of more-measurable benefits, the eight-week call center training cycle has been shortened to just three weeks, resulting in lower training costs and less turnover of call center staff. And many of those simple transactions that took three minutes or longer to complete are now done in less than a minute.
Customer satisfaction is on the rise, too, as gas and electricity users can now use a Web-based interface to do everything from starting service to accessing their bills and arranging a service call. And the company is readying what Bunworth says is Ireland's first iPhone utilities app, which will make all of this information available to customers on the go.
Call center staff also are empowered with more information at their fingertips. The system is easily configurable, allowing staff to populate their screens with the kinds of information most customers are calling about—from what their balance is to when their next bill is due and when their meter was last read. With the old legacy system, there was only one standard configuration, and employees had to scroll through multiple DOS-like screens to get to such information. It was confounding for a call center staff that's increasingly young and has grown up in the point-and-click internet era; the new system falls much more in these employees' comfort zone.
"They were configuring their own screens within weeks," says Tony Bridgeman, who as business transformation manager in Bord Gáis' energy business answered directly to Bunworth and was the person charged with delivering the new billing system.
The Oracle platform also has enabled Bord Gáis to start delving into customer segmentation for the first time. The old legacy system provided almost no insight into customers, preventing the company from analyzing its interactions with customers based on their relative value. A customer that spent €20,000 a year was treated no differently than one who spent €4,000. Now, the company can offer customers tailored services and rewards.
The company plans to build on its newfound customer relationship management (CRM) foundation by bolstering the system to take its relationship with customers to another level. Last year, Bunworth and Bridgeman attended the Oracle OpenWorld conference and were impressed by new functionality that's likely to spur Bord Gáis to upgrade the system in another 12 to 18 months so they can take advantage of new customer-facing capabilities. As Bunworth notes, Bord Gáis is essentially a billing company, and utility bills aren't exactly tools for forging bonds with customers. But new Web-based features soon to be introduced will enable the company to leverage its emerging online interface to do exactly that.
"It's about getting them to be able to manage their energy and to interact with them more than to say, 'You owe us €2,147.37,'" Bunworth says. "It's about the whole management of that relationship with the customer. What we now know we have is an accurate on-time billing system, but it will develop into a more CRM-based one."
CEO John Mullins, to whom Cunningham reports, says such insight is critical if Bord Gáis is to maintain its hold on electricity customers and remain competitive for the long term, especially now that the ESB is free to set its own prices.
"I'd like to understand why Mrs. Smith in Dublin or Mrs. Jones in Galway doesn't want to stay with us," he says. "I can only do that in the context of transactions on the billing site. I need intelligence. I need a system to effectively tell me a lot more about my customer."
Next-Generation Service
What's more, Mullins wants to be able to tap that insight to reach out to customers in new and innovative ways.
Future success in the utility market won't be achieved simply through efficient energy service and billing. Utilities like Bord Gáis are also preparing for an onslaught of customer data about energy use, sharing that data with customers via the internet and mobile devices, and billing in smaller-than-ever increments.
With Bord Gáis moving beyond a decades-old legacy system, management is now in a position to deliver next-generation service that can compete for more-informed, and thus more-demanding, customers.
The years-long effort to update its billing and customer care platform to a modern, Web-friendly system has done more than allow Bord Gáis to capitalize on a deregulated residential electricity market. Managers are providing modern products and services, including smart meters, remote energy management, and interval billing.
Bord Gáis' experiments with smart meters have been limited to fewer than 20,000 of its 1 million customers, but feedback suggests potential for a wide acceptance of the new technology. The company has run two pilots—one for residential gas customers and a smaller one for its fast-growing roster of residential electricity customers. With the new billing system in place, the company is already capable of calling data from and sending it to smart meters with pinpoint accuracy, and that's allowing it to display energy usage data in new ways using the internet.
"The feedback has been very positive," says Cunningham. "People love the graphics, and they love being able to see the day-by-day consumption and where the demand is during the day."
Meanwhile, Bord Gáis is charging steadily ahead in an effort to provide interval billing and remote energy management. Cunningham says Bord Gáis' new billing system is fully capable of billing residential customers' energy usage in 15- or 30-minute increments, much like the company has been doing for complex commercial customers—thus allowing for more-precise charges and more-granular use of energy. It's an approach to consumption that's increasingly of interest to customers and is expected to become common practice over the next several years.
Additionally, Bunworth says a prototype product that enables remote management of energy resources—for instance, being able to adjust your home's heating while away on vacation—should be ready for use within the next year.
With so many unrealized benefits on the horizon for Bord Gáis, that Pasteur quote needs an update if it's still to apply: "Chance favors only the prepared—and visionary—mind."
For More Information
Oracle Solutions for Utilities
Oracle Applications for Customer Care and Billing
When to Restart an IT Project
Photography by Shutterstock


text:
DETROIT – 8:56AM So we are back at the courthouse after a day off following defense lawyer Susan Van Dusen's slip on a mat face first into the hard marble floor. Poor woman. It was a rough morning for her Monday with a tough witness on the stand- Kathleen McCann, ex employee of local billionaire Tony Soave.
She was rushed to hospital and we took the day off to allow her a day to recover. sounds like she won't be making it to court today though. Overheard entering the courthouse were fellow Bobby Ferguson defense lawyers Gerald Evelyn and Mike Rataj mentioning that Van Dusen was off to a neurologist to get checked out. I bet she's really missing her home in Miami right now.
Also sounds like the government might be taking a whole new direction today for a new chapter. It'll be interesting to see if one of Ferguson's lawyers continues with McCann or if we do set off on a different track today.
9:02AM Video turns on and it looks like all the players are in the courtroom except for Van Dusen.
I saw Kwame and Bernard Kilpatrick buying a bunch of water bottles outside the first floor shop this morning. "It's to wash away all the bull@##," said Kwame.
Judge tells jury that Van Dusen recovering fall and might be away for the week. Differing the rest of McCann's cross until she is back, probably beginning of next week.
We are going ahead with a new chapter and EPA special agent Carol Paszkiewicz is on the stand.
9:07AM US Attorney Mark Chutkow for government introduces Water commissioner agenda from December 19th 2001 into evidence.
The witness recognizes a text message exchange between Ferguson and Kwame on October 30th 2002. Inland Waters had started work on contract 1368.
Ferguson: "When do you meet with Soave?"
Kwame: "Don't know will holla later."
Looking at another text exchange between Kwame and Ferguson on November 4th 20002. 1368 was under way.
Kwame: "I'll call you later on Graimark. I know you met today.... it's fucked up but I'm with George now I'll explain later...."
Ferguson: "I met with them I cool you know I don't cry for shit that don't help both of us I didn't push $$% issue...What we need to talk about is that effin' Soave...."
Looking at exchange from August 9th 2004.
Ferguson: "Tonys very smart he didn't call me back Kathleen did asking what was the meeting I requesting pertaining to "holla later...."
Kwame: "Cool."
On August 19th 2004. It's a stop work order from DWSD related to 1368. Sent to Dennis Oszust of Inland Waters referring to having Ferguson stop work until all issues of restoration are addressed. this is 10 days after last email exchange between Ferguson and Kwame.
Email message from Eugenia Blake, worked at FEI, to Ferguson's text on September 2nd 2004.
Blake: "Reminder!!! reminder!!! your 4:30pm with Katheleen McCan 313-567-0125 ext. 280 @ Lafayette.
Defense calls for a sidebar.
9:36AM Text message exchange between Kwame and Ferguson on September 7th 2004.
Kwame: "What happened with Gino?" That's Gino D'Agostini.
Ferguson:" I am going to talk to him today, it's the same he wants to work for him just let victor know I geno makes 2.00 fei to make 2.00 also will you look at the invoices to make sure..." This is the actual spelling from the text exchanges not my typos though there are probably some of those too....
Another entry from mayor's calendar on September 7th 2004. 8:30am to 9:30am with Victor Mercado at Detroit Club.
9:01AM was when Kwame sent the last text exchange and 9:18am is when Ferguson replied.
There are phone exchanges on September 7th 2004 between Mercado and Ferguson at night for 7 minutes as indicated by the phone records.
Now looking at email from Mercado's account. To Mercado and Fujita from an executive assistant to Mercado. Dated November 21st 2005. Subject is forward SAO (special administrator orders) with the mayor. Those orders refer to special powers of mayor on water contracts.
Admin orders with mayor. First one is amendment #4 on CS 1368 on August 29th 2005. This was the Inland amendment approved by the mayor.
Email from September 17th 2005 from McCann to Dennis Oszust about amendment #4 asking about outstanding issues with Bobby. Answer is that it is held up because of an issue with Bobby. This is about 3 weeks after the mayor received request for amendment.
Another email from Dennis Oszust on Tuesday October 11th 2005 to McCann. Says that amendment is held up until FEI is satisfied. Refers to QK- McCann's people's designation for Kwame.
Judge asks Chutkow to slow down. Defense lawyer Gerald Evelyn just stood up and asked for 5 minutes. Oh no. Evelyn books out of the courtroom though he doesn't look like he is struggling the way he was more than a month ago.
9:55AM Evelyn just walked back into the courtroom and sat back down next to Ferguson.
We were just discussing the amendments to contract 1368 for Inland. Amendments are typically done to increase payments to 1368.
Judge just tells Bernard's defense lawyer "you need a message. Me too."
Jury is back in and Chutkow continues on the amendment to 1368. Oszust met with Ferguson in December 2005 along with McCann. Ferguson had requested the meeting.
Inland Waters paid Ferguson for his work on the sinkhole and then paid him an additional $350,000.
Looking at DWSD form on 1368 amendment #4. It's basically like a routing slip that is signed off on by various DWSD officials. Prepared on August 12th 2005. This is prepared by one of Daryl Latimer's staff. Sent to mayor's office on August 29th 2005.
Next page is the cover page for amendment #4 followed by the Special Administrator Order 2005-33. That means it was the 33rd special order sent to mayor in 2005. This document is signed by Kilpatrick as special administrator. It basically gives him full authority to grant contracts. authorizes Victor Mercado to enter into contract on 1360 amendment #4. It is signed December 23rd 2005. So obviously Kilpatrick had full authority on this contract contrary to what the defense was arguing last week.
Mercado also signs this but there is no date next to his signature. Chutkow asking if there is any acknowledgement of when Mercado received it. City acknowledgement of receipt is January 12th 2006 by Victor Mercado, 3 weeks after mayor signed special administrator's order.
On February 3rd 2006 finance signs it. The law department signs February 13th 2006. City council approves it on April 19th 2006.
Now we are looking at chart created by the witness on finance records for 1368. FEI revenues on this contract were $20.8 million. On the sinkhole FEI made $3.1 million.
Now a spreadsheet from Inland Waters internal financial file. Has a breakdown of contractors, subcontractors, billing and invoice amounts. Mentions william McCormick and Associates, also a minority subcontractor who was on initial bid. They made more than $308,000 on 1368. Superior Construction made $448,990.01 on excavation for 1368, also another minority business. FEI not listed as minority excavator on 1338 initially. FEI made: on point repair, more than $11,360,000, the next line item is Ferguson lining what they thought Insituform paid, more than $9,400,000, 15 mile repairs more than $3,000,000.
Now looking at witness records for DWS 864 (east side contract) joint venture between Inland and Xcel, Ferguson's company and sub-contractor was FEI. Xcel made $191,000, FEI received $4.6 million in revenues.
10:20AM The witness reading about mayor being chief executive of the city and is responsible for city branch of executive government according to the city charter.
Financial report for 2002 followed by city organization chart dated June 2002. Witness obtained documents off of the city of Detroit website.
Looking at comprehensive annual report for city of Detroit for fiscal year ending in June 2002. Kwame Kilpatrick is mayor. Looking at organizational chart for June 2002. Shows that all the agencies report to the city of Detroit. Line of different agencies below the mayor.
Chutkow and the witness are methodically going over all the different departments reporting to the mayor. Budget, finance, law, human rights amongst others all report to the mayor. The mayor has the power to remove directors of all the departments reporting to him.
Chutkow asking about Kim Harris who was chief compliance office.
Now talking about DWSD. Headed by Board of Water commissioners appointed by the mayor and they in turn appoint director and deputy director who answer to the Board.
Now talking about a document from Judge Feikens's files. It is order continuing special administratorship for DWSD. after Kwame was elected but prior to being sworn in, this transfers special administratorship to mayor-elect and will be effective January 1st 2002.
Another order from Judge Feikens approving the employment contract for Victor Mercado dated May 23rd 2002. The order approved by court and approves executive of employment agreement entered on behalf of DWSD by Kilpatrick as special administrator of DWSD.
Looking at order 2002-3 on Victor Mercado. Submitted by Kilpatrick on May 23rd 2002.
The orders basically empower Kilpatrick fully over the DWSD.
Mercado's employment agreement is dated May 23rd 2002. Mercado accepts employment under direction of the mayor of Detroit under terms set forth in the agreement. Kilpatrick mayor at the time of contract.
Again, all this methodical documentation is to prove the mayor's overall authority.
10:35AM Judge calls for a 20 minute break.
11:00AM Judge admonishing courtroom for taking longer than 20 minutes. Defense wasn't at the first floor shop today so not sure where everybody was.
Chutkow continuing his method questioning of EPA agent Carol Paszkiewicz who is not missing a beat. This woman knows her Kwame files.
Back to the city organizational chart. City council has direct control over 3 branches. There will be witnesses from the Detroit Building Authority. The next chapter has to do with the Heilmann Recreational Center in Detroit.
Witness looking at text exchange between Kwame and one of his admins. June 13th 2002
Kwame: "Call me when bobby and Victor get to the office."
Linda: "Will do."
Mercado's employment agreement was signed 3 weeks previous to this.
Text exchange on June 21st 2002 between Bernard and Kwame.
Bernard: Just met with Bobby Ferguson... The 3 of us need to meet at least twice a month for an hour for awhile.."
Kwame: "cool."
Exchange between Bernard, Derrick miller and Kwame on July 2nd 2002.
Bernard: The real problem with DWSD is the evaluation committee. Warren has some ideas how you can proceed. Can we meet with him tomorrow evening?
Warren Evans is Water Commissioner
Bernard: No problem. I was just thinking short-term....Already out there...
Miller: don't want to meet with this guy. He needs to meet new guy.
Bernard: He already did. says he is going. going to be real good. However there are some pressing issues to deal with..."
Missed some of this exchange.
Ferguson and Kwame on November 6th 2002.
Ferguson: I need to talk to you and its important. DWSD 5 minutes whenever you can today. its about funds.
Kwame: Cool. come over about 5
Ferguson: will be over 5 m
Text message between Carolyn Williams Meza COO for Detroit and Ruth Carter head of law department on June 11th 2003
Meza: ruth mayor KMK does not want to give contract extension to victor. glad i checked. no new assignment for you.
Carter: Me too, didn't sound right to me either. i'm surprised at victor...
Merza: So is KMK.
June 13th 2003 between Mercado and Kwame, 2 days after above exchange.
Mercado: Mr. mayor...Also are we still on tomorrow.
Kwame: Talk to you about everything tomorrow at your house.
Exchange between Kwame and admin Linda on June 13th 2002
Kwame: Call me when Bobby and Victor get to the office.
Linda: Will do.
Already saw that one. Next day June 14th 2003 between Christine Beatty and Kwame.
Beatty: So it's a date?
Kwame: I have a mtg with Bobby and Victir at 8 i'll meet you afterwards.
Beatty: For real? I was actually just talking stuff! That would be wonderful to hear from you then...
Another entry from Saturday, June 14th 2003 from mayor's calendar. 8 to 9pm that day meeting with Mercado at 727 White Oak Drive West Bloomfield and directions to Mercado's home. This is the same day as text exchange with Beatty.
Now on June 18th 2003. A text exchange between Kwame and Ferguson.
Kwame: Talk to Victor I meet with him at 10:00.
Ferguson: Ok. i need to meet you today with the out of the country stuff i have it.
Kwame: come to my office at 10:30.
Text exchange between Meza and Kwame on the same day.
Meza: How did the mtg with Victir go? Should we plan to talk tomorrow? i can schedule with Iris if you wish.
Kwame: Mtg went well. No extension and he is doing pld (public lighting dept.) ni do agree there are some political things i need to do first.
Meza: ok i'll talk with him to get the change plan ready....
Exchange on August 23rd 2002 between Ferguson and Beatty.
Ferguson: good morning. are you in your office. If so I need the number of motor city's DWSD JOB or do you want me to call victor26 million is posens
Beatty:I am actually in a training you may have to call victor.
Ferguson: will call later.
Beatty:Thank you.
Ferguson: Are you sure the company is motor city? victor says
Beatty: that may be right.
Ferguson: pursue motor city under the same directions.
Beatty: do you mean for what we talked about last night
Ferguson: yes exactly.
Beatty: let me talk to mr. mayor
Ferguson: ok get back with me.
Exchange between Kwame and Ferguson. March 8th 2003.
Ferguson: Are you going to call victor today 3 of us break bread this evening.
Kwame: Yeah i'll holla after work.
Another entry for mayor's calendar on Saturday, March 8th 2003. 9:30 to 11:00pm mayor, ferguson and victor at Mercado's house.
Letter to Judge Feikens dated Ferbruary 27th 2006 from Kwame Kilpatrick. Talks about January 5th 2005 opinion and order terminating the special administratorship. Date is incorrect by a year- terminated January 5th 2006.
WS 650, 657 and 651 changes need to be approved for unanticipated work. Kilpatrick no longer special administrator so he is asking Feikens to approve those orders. For 623 as well. Asking court assistance for orderly transition.
Asking for change orders for the following: 650 (Ferguson for $170,767), 657 (Willie McCormick for $158,266) and 651 (Ferguson for $276,135), on contract 623 for Ferguson Enterprises for $7,516,505.10. Lastly for D'agostini for $3.995 million.
Of the 5 companies listed on change orders, 4 of them were affiliated with Ferguson's company.
Asking to extend Mercado's employment until the end of Kwame's term in office.
11:37AM Kwame's lawyer Jim Thomas cross-examines the witness.
Looking at text exchange between Ferguson and Kwame on October 30th 2002 about meeting with Soave. Thomas saying this message doesn't establish that there was an actual meeting with Soave. And that even if there was a meeting, we don't know what was discussed.
The witness says she knows what was discussed. Thomas says that would be hearsay
And now onto the text message between Kwame and Ferguson on November 4th 2002.
Mayor: I'll call you later about Graimark. i know you met today. its fucked but i'm with george now. I'll explain later!
Graimark is a housing development under Archer. George refers to George Jackson at the time the head of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
Ferguson: i meet with them. I cool you know I don't cry for shit that dont help both of us. I didn't push the % issue I turn in busget #s for sitework. what we need to talk about is fucking soave.
Mayor: Yeah. i'll holla later about that.
Thomas dissecting meaning of text messages introduced by the government and implying that the witness is interpreting them to mean something they might not.
Now onto the email from September 2nd 2004 from Eugenia Blake reminding mayor about his meeting with Kathleen McCann. Thomas saying that the former mayor might have good reason to meet with McCann.
Apparently sinkhole disaster going on at this time, the main serviced a huge part of Macomb County. This is a sewer that is not flowing properly.
Thomas saying that the former mayor had gone out to the sinkhole site prior to the September 2nd date and that there were press conferences between him and mayor of Sterling Heights having to do with response to the disaster. Thomas saying mayor Kilpatrick was praised for his response to the sinkhole disaster.
Witness says she knows that as special administrator the former mayor had the power to authorize contracts.
Thomas reiterating that that the contract process has many steps before the contracts are actually awarded. Thomas says that sometimes special administartor needed to intercede in a cumbersome process. Thomas saying there is no greater emergency than when a sewer is spilling out into neighborhoods.
Thomas listing contracts 1368, 1361, 1325, 2014, 2015, 864, 865 as all going through normal channels. Amendments to 1368 and granting of pilot contract 2012 with amendments to east side and west side contracts were the only ones that special administrator orders were used for.
12:00PM Looking at the sinkhole aerial shots.
12:01PM In an earlier text exchange from September 2nd 2004, Ferguson mentioned to Kwame that there were "only 2 negros up here, up in here." It was a meeting about the sinkhole. Thomas says this points to the fact that Ferguson was concerned about the lack of minority participation on the contract. This was at the top of the same exchange where Ferguson said that "Kathleen bitch tried to punk me out." "Kathleen bitch" is Kathleen McCann, former executive with Soave Enterprises.
Thomas saying that Kilpatrick started out with 20,000 employees that went doen to 15,000 after re-election so he was dealing with lots of people. Thomas says so sometimes when Ferguson was communicating with Kwame there were lots of deferrals like "LOL" or "holla at you later" with no records of later follow ups.
Looking at calendar entry from September 1st 2004 for the mayor about meeting with mayor at Sterling Heights. Thomas comparing Kwame's response to the sinkhole disaster to President Bush's response to Katrina. Says Kwame was 4 days faster than Bush.
Looking at Kwame and Bobby exchange from September 1st 2004 where Kwame is telling Ferguson to get on the Sterling Heights job. Thomas saying do you find it unusual for Ferguson to talk to Mercado about sinkhole? Paszkewicz says yes she does.
Thomas says but doesn't Mercado have an emergency situation where spill water was spilling all over Sterling Heights. Witness agrees. Thomas says wouldn't Mercado talk to the mayor about this? Witness agrees with that. Thomas says and for the former mayor to talk to Ferguson? The witness concedes that in a friendship capacity, yes.
Thomas asks if Soave looks like the kind of guy who text messages people? "I don't know, he might," says the witness.
Government objects that Thomas is giving a speech. Judge sustains.
Thomas saying that text messages are not complete. Witness says that the text exchange in question from September 1st 2004 is complete so there are some personal comments like where Ferguson talks about riding his bike.
At the end of the exchange that day:
Kwame: Come to my ofc at 7
Ferguson: Still come to yours at 5:30
Kwame: You kill me that Bullshit!
Thomas asks if that is response to riding motorcycle or what has been said in the last 40 minutes of exchange.
Kwame: No cancel that!
Thomas asks if witness knows what cancel that means. She does not.
Ferguson: You only fucking boss i have besides cookie. i need to listen to someone don't you think.
Cookie refers to Marilyn Johnson, Ferguson's wife.
Kwame: I hear you.
Now there is a large gap of 3 hours. Thomas saying he is illustrating that there could have been other conversations whether by phone or in person between exchanges.
Thomas says there are many different conclusions that can be drawn from the text exchanges. Witness agrees she can't determine what all the exchanges mean.
12:25PM Witness says that an analyst at FBI put together the record of cell phone exchanges between Mercado and Ferguson. This is to identify sum total of cell communications between them. Thomas says but both men had home and office phones as well. Paszkewiecz agrees.
Looking at text exchange from September 7th 2004 where Kwame is asking about Gino D'Agostino. D'Agostino's was headquartered in Macomb County and not Detroit. In the message chain, Ferguson seems to be concerned with work parity with D'Agostini. Looks like Ferguson is being to asked to work for D'Agostini in the exchange.
Mayor's calendar from Tuesday, September 7th, 2004. Thomas going through all the mayor's meetings including a 1pm with Brooks Paterson, an Oakland County executive. Thomas says couldn't sinkhole project be related to water coming from Oakland County. Witness says she doesn't know.
Witness says executive agencies reporting to mayor are all those listed on organizational chart. Thomas says City Council has a long history of having arm's length relationship with mayor. Witness asks him to clarify. Witness says that City council can hold on to a contract that has been sent on approval. She also agrees that City Council and Detroit mayor don't tend to have harmonious relationship based on what she has seen in the media.
12:40PM Witness agrees with Thomas that the mayor can delegate responsibilities to the deputy mayor. And that the mayor might delegate various agencies to other of his top people.
Thomas saying that the special administrator order under Judge Feikens didn't require the mayor to go through city council but he did anyways.
Thomas asking if some of the other contractors we have been talking about like DLZ had relationships with members of the DWSD. Thomas talking about ethnic relationships. "I don't know about ethnic relationships," says the witness. Thomas says DLZ had Indian connections.
Government objects. The judge agrees she has no idea what an "ethnic" relationship is and asks Thomas to move along.
Talking about Bernard Parker, who was a business developer looking for work for his employers. Witness says Parker was used to seek information about contracts coming up. Witness says it was coming that people would talk about what was coming up or what issues might be in existence.
Thomas brings up amendment #4 to DWSD contract 1368. There are records that indicate that this was related to sinkhole says witness. Thomas points out that there were numerous sign offs on the amendment by different departments. Thomas says rumor had it that Kilpatrick was holding on to the contract. Witness says that rumor came from Derrick Miller who expressed it in communications and in an interview with her.
Final sign off by city council on amendment #4 was April 19th 2006.
12:55PM Thomas says this is a good place to stop. Judge agrees and dismisses the jury.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Kwame Kilpatrick's federal trial
About the author
Alexandra Harland is a Princeton undergrad and has a masters degree in International affairs with Columbia. A Montreal native, she worked with the Daily Telegraph newspaper for a few years before transitioning to TV, when she worked at ABC News with Peter Jennings. Alexandra has also worked in newsrooms in both Detroit and Boston.


text:
A bit of an extension on the previous posts:
I had a whale of a time trying to make this command work .. the parameters were hard to decipher, and frequently my Apache module would just crash and burn when I tried to run it. I FINALLY figured out what was wrong ...
< -- assuming $conn is your odbc_connect --->
simply doesn't work. I don't understand the exact logistics of it, but the only way I could get it to post the results was this:
From there it was rather simple to add in parameters that fished out the results I wanted.
To repeat again: I do not understand why the 2nd method works and the 1st one does not. However, having struggled mightily with this function for almost 24 hours, posting this solution has proven to be greatly satisfying.


text:
The Evergreen Curling Club posts three rules by the rink. First, shake hands. Second, if you win, clean the ice. And third, winners by the first round of drinks.
That final rule pretty well encapsulates the spirit of Oregon's only curling club, which is not quite a drinking team with a curling problem but sometimes comes close. Evergreen has members who curl several times a week, but camaraderie trumps competition, and there's always reason for a drink.
"We have some non-drinking curlers," says Craig Webster, a curler of nine years.
"They're still fun to hang out with," adds Joe Petsche, a 32-year-old software programmer who joined the club five years ago.
For anyone who's missed the Winter Olympics recently, curling is the shuffleboard-like sport in which players slide heavy granite stones across a sheet of ice toward a target area. Two sweepers, armed with brooms, polish the ice to affect the stone's course. Curlers are quick to point out that no one wears skates, and that it's a mixed-gender sport for all ages. Members range in age from 11 to 80, and of Evergreen's 110 members, about 30 percent are women. An Evergreen women's team is heading to club nationals in March.
In early December, the Evergreen club opened a devoted curling facility in Beaverton, quickly securing a limited liquor license (the fridge is stacked with bottles of Widmer and Ninkasi). Prior to that, curling twice a week at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink, the members imbibed with greater secrecy. "At Lloyd Center, you were not allowed to have alcoholic beverages," says Steve Talley, 73.
Petsche interjects, "This has to be off the record!" But Webster brushes Petsche aside. "You brought in some beer," he says. "But it was not something that was openly consumed."
"We were in the dark," Petsche says. "The mall was closed. And we were very responsible about packing it out. We weren't going to leave any glass bottles behind."
Members say their drinking habits are in line with those of curlers around the world, and they don't bring alcohol on the ice. Arnie Iwanick did nonetheless show off a broom he bought in Scotland in 1981. The handle twists open to reveal an empty, metal-lined shaft—perfect for filling with four shots of alcohol.
"You put in no less than 25-year-old Scotch," Iwanick says. Based on the clean smell, though—Iwanick lets me sniff—he abides by the no-alcohol-on-the- ice rule.
On the ice, Evergreen curlers take their sport seriously but with mercifully little sense of self-importance. These are players, after all, who attend costumed tournaments—Petsche recalls a '60s-themed match in Seattle where curlers wore Afro wigs, short shorts and capes. In 2007, the Evergreen club held a re-enactment of an 1847 curling match at Fort Vancouver, where competitors donned top hats, kilts and military jackets with epaulets.
When I visited the Evergreen club to take a curling lesson ($20) in December, members wore more subdued athletic attire. But the act itself looked just as silly as it does on Olympic broadcasts, and with just as much yelling. The sport recalls bowling, except that curlers stretch into yogalike stances (think half-pigeon pose) as they release the 42-pound granite stone. I regretted not wearing stretchier pants.
But Petsche and Eric Toews, who together instructed the 20-odd group of wannabe curlers, stressed the sport's everyman accessibility. They were right; the
mechanics are a little awkward at first, but it turns out that heaving a massive rock across a sheet of ice is easier (and more satisfying) than whacking a dimpled orb into a miniscule hole or swinging at a little stitched ball. I reared up in the starting hacks, placing my left foot on a shoe-shaped piece of Teflon. This would help me slide across the ice, Petsche said. It would also, I learned, make the already slick ice feel diabolical. I stayed mostly upright.
The sweeping motion was easier, and the over-the-sole ice grippers helped keep me vertical. But I quickly learned the point was not to sweep as zealously as possible, but rather to pay attention to the speed and direction of the stone and then make a judgment call on how best to guide the stone into position. Petsche explained the finer points of the stone's velocity and arc, noting that it should make two full rotations on its journey across the ice. He talked about friction and drag and other things I never studied in school. "You have to have a certain nerd factor to get into curling," he added.
Scientific calculations aside, curling is a social sport, and the Evergreen club excels at this part of the game. Talley, Webster and Petsche explain the practice of broomstacking, which is like a timeout, except with alcohol: During a match, all curlers pile their brooms at one end of the ice and exit the rink for a drink.
"What typically happens is the team that's behind is trying to break the momentum of the team that's ahead," Webster says.
"You're not just trying to get them drunk?" I ask.
He nods and chuckles. "Well, there's a little of that too."
GO: The Evergreen Curling Club is at 10950 SW 5th St., Suite 155, Beaverton. evergreencurling.com.


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This "Gossip Girl" dishes with a twang.
Leighton Meester admits she loved venturing away from the world of dream-squashing NYC prepsters to dream-chasing Nashville stars for "Country Strong."
"I'd never done country music," Meester, who plays an ambitious if occasionally performance-challenges country singer in the film and side-gigs in real life as a pop singer-songwriter, tells PopcornBiz. "I just fell in love with it, and I have this movie to thank for that because it's so great."
U.S. & World
"Country music is so cool," she explains. "It is an entirely different world and it's a different type of business, but everyone there is a very close-knit family and that was pretty cool."
Meester said she embraced the teased-haired, prettily painted style of a country music diva-in-training – at least for the role.
"I would look in the mirror and just not recognize myself: all this lacquered hair and these lips and eyelashes and the nails and this blue leather dress and cowboy boots and everything – and it does help."
Playing a character who must look perfect even as she is warbling songs about heartache and bad habits appealed to the actress.
"She's a beauty queen, so you have to talk right and look right and be right and proper, whereas in country music, you can talk about how messed up everything is and how much you drink and smoke and how much your heart has been broken – and people don't judge you based on that. She really wanted people to think that she's more than just pretty – she wants to be smart and she wants people to think she's talented and she fears being insignificant or common or interchangeable. She wants to be a big star."
Superstardom is not really part of Meester's own game plan, however.
"I surround myself with people who know me for me and not from any show or anything, and they don't judge me based on anything but how I act," she says. "They tell me if I'm being an ass, for sure. I don't want fame. I want to grow as an actor and as a person."


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Dr. Laskowski: The seated row is an exercise you can do with a weight machine to work the muscles in your upper back. Specifically, the seated row targets the muscles in your upper back and also the latissimus dorsi — a muscle on the outer side of the chest wall. This exercise will help improve your posture and help protect your shoulders.
Nicole Krupa: To do the seated row with a weight machine, start by sitting on the weight bench with your knees bent and by grasping the cable attachment. Your arms should be extended and your shoulders stretched slightly forward. Slowly pull the cable to your waist, until your elbows are bent and your shoulders are back. Then slowly return to the starting position. You'll feel tension in your back and arms.
When you're doing the seated row, make sure you feel only a mild stretch in the starting position.
For most people, one set of 12 to 15 repetitions is adequate.
Remember, for best results, do not lean too far forward in the starting position. Also, keep your movements smooth and controlled.
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CONTACT: J.P. Duffy or Darin Miller, (866) FRC-NEWS or (866) 372-6397
NASHVILLE, TN - Family Research Council (FRC) will host a news conference at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee today, Tuesday, March 5. FRC President Tony Perkins and FRC Executive Vice President Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin will be joined by Janet Parshall, radio host for Moody Radio, Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. of Hope Christian Church and Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), to discuss the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that employers cover abortion-causing drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives in their health insurance plans, even if those employers have religious convictions against such coverage.
Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) introduced the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (HCCRA) yesterday to protect the religious liberties of anyone who purchases health insurance, including non-profits, businesses and individuals, as well as providing greater protections for health care workers who refuse to participate in abortion. Black will be holding a press conference in Washington, D.C. today on her bill and will join the press conference at NRB by video.
Last year FRC hosted a news conference at the NRB convention to release a petition signed by over 2,500 religious leaders in opposition to the HHS mandate.
Tony Perkins, president, FRC
Lt. Gen. (Ret). Jerry Boykin, executive vice president, FRC
Janet Parshall, radio talk show host, Moody Radio
Richard Land, president, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., senior pastor, Hope Christian Church
WHAT: News conference on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate on abortion-causing drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives
WHERE: News Conference Room, Delta Ballroom B (located inside the Media Center), Gaylord Opryland Convention Center
WHEN: 3 p.m. Central, TODAY, Tuesday, March 5
To view last year's petition signed by over 2,500 religious leaders in opposition to the mandate, click here: http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF12B47.pdf


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Bus collides with van in Baltimore, 13 injured
Cause of crash unknown
A collision between a school bus and a passenger minivan injured 13 people in Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon.
Fire officials said the bus and van collided at Ensor and Madison streets just after 3 p.m. The van was pinned against an apartment building wall as a result, officials said.
The driver of the passenger van and a pedestrian in the area suffered injuries. They were transported to area hospitals for treatment.
Authorities said 11 students suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the collision and were transported to area hospitals.
School officials said the bus was carrying the girls' soccer team from the National Academy Foundation, school No. 421. They were on their way to play Poly High School's team when the crash happened.
Baltimore police are investigating the cause of the crash.


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